


One step after the other

by Miranda



Category: Thundercats (1985)
Genre: F/M, during season 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-22
Updated: 2014-06-22
Packaged: 2018-02-05 19:12:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1829146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miranda/pseuds/Miranda
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the mutants fly overhead, Willa follows to find out what they are up to now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One step after the other

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DesertVixen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/gifts).



Willa tied the two rabbits she’d caught together and started to climb the tree next to her.

Just having reached the lower branches, she heard the sound of machines drawing near. Not close to the forest floor but high up in the air.

“Mutants! Have you finally crawled back out of the whole you call a castle.”

She pressed herself against the tree trunk, waiting for flying machines to pass.

When they passed her she was clad to see that they had turned course and where no longer on a direct path towards the Village. Still, she would follow them, there was no knowing what trouble they were brewing this time.

She left the rabbits hanging in the tree and swiftly followed the mutants. 

“I hope the others heard the Mutants as well and called the Thundercats.”

The warning system the Thundercats had installed worked well, discouraging the Mutants from coming near the Village. Yet it had its limits.

She reached the corner of the forest, having already passed the Volcano of the Firethrower. The river all that lay between her and the great mountain range. The mutants continued on towards the mountains, when Willa saw something drop from one of the flying machines. She was too far away to clearly see, but she thought it might have been a body.

Carefully she made her way to the river. This part thankfully tame and not know to hold any of the beast that made crossing any other part a life-threatening adventure.

The flying machines where circling low still some ways off. 

In the shadow of boulders she sneaked closer, always making sure that the Mutants were still occupied.

“Do you see him anywhere, Monkian?”

That was the one called Jackalman.

“No, I can’t see him anywhere. We should go back, before the rest of those damnable Thundercats come.”

So it had been a body she had seen drop.

“Yes, let us return. Getting here should keep the Thundercats well enough distracted so Slime and Vultureman can get to Hook Mountain.”

Willa waited till she couldn’t hear the flying machines anymore, then she went to where the Mutants had circled. 

She didn’t have to look long, had the Mutants landed they’d have seen Tygra face-down in a nook between two stones.

She ran towards him.

“Tygra! Tygra!”

Tygra didn’t move.

She couldn’t see any blood on him and he had to have hidden in the nook under his own power. Thundercats were notoriously tough, so she was sure that he was still alive, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t have broken some bones. 

With some difficult she managed to drag him out of the nook enough to turn him over. Putting an ear to his chest confirmed that he still lived, albeit his heart beat sounding a bit weak. She had never heard a Thundercat’s before. But every creature teeming with life like the Thundercats usually did, had to have a stronger heart beat.

Tygra took a shuddering breath, his eyes opening to small slits.

“Willa”

His voice was weak and pained.

“Tygra, where are you hurt.”

He tried to grab her arm but failed. She took his hand.

“Not hurt … Thundrainium”

So, that was it. She hadn’t known that Fire Rocks were also in this mountain range, or she’d have warned the Thundercats off it when she first heard of their weakness.

“Then come, Tygra, before the other Thundercats end up in the same trap.”

Further delaying them from helping the inhabitants of Hook Mountain. She tried to drag him up, not liking the way his breath rattled.

“Wait … call the others … Mutants … Hook Mountain”

He fumbled for his belt, where indeed one of the little devices the Thundercats used to communicate with each other was still secured. She managed to get it off, just as it started beeping and blinking. 

_”Tygra, Tygra! Can you hear me?”_

That was Panthro.

Tentatively she lifted the device and spoke to it.

“I’m Willa. Do not come here, there are Fire Rocks here. And the Mutants want you away from Hook Mountain.”

In the background she could hear Leo asking his sword for the Sight beyond Sight, and then Panthro talked to her again.

_”We understand. Help Tygra, we’ll come after we took care of the Mutants. Call us, if you need help.”_

She clipped the device back to Tygra’s belt and then gave him a slap to wake him up again.

“Come, lets get you out of here.”

Which was easier said than done. She was trained to swiftly live and fight in the forests not to carry half-dead Thundercats off a mountain. Tygra tried to help, but she could see that he was getting ever weaker. The most difficult part came after he was sitting up – getting him onto his feet. They managed to get him half onto her back half leaning against a boulder. It took all her strength to push him up from there. 

When he was leaning against the boulder and she against him so he wouldn’t slip down again, she had to take several moments just to gather her breath.

She feared he had fallen unconscious again, but when she moved to get his arm around her shoulder, she felt the muscles in his arm working with her. Keeping hold of the arm around her shoulder with one hand, she put the other around his waist.

“Off we go. One step after the other.”

A grunt was the only reply she got.

She took the first step, away from the boulder. Tygra’s weight settled onto her. There were several moments she feared going down under it, but then she managed to adjust her equilibrium. She took another step and felt Tygra shuddering as he shuffled his foot forward.

If they kept to that pace, Willa wasn’t sure Tygra would survive. But she knew he wouldn’t survive at all, if they didn’t try. There was no one here who could help them, and the Thundercats were far away and busy with the Mutants. Willa also doubted that even Cheetara would be fast enough to out run the effects of the Thundrainium like she had done with time itself.

Two painfully slow steps became three and then four, and then she stopped counting.

Eyes on the path ahead, ears on Tygra’s ragged breathing, it was easier to revel in the hope of escaping alive brought by every step they took further away from this wretched mountain.

The path ahead was treasonous. Small boulders and sharp stones in their way. At any time else they would have stepped over them as if they weren’t even there. But with Tygra’s faltering step, each stone became an obstacle threatening to topple them over.

A few more steps and they’d reach the river. And either she had become too numb to Tygra’s weight or he was getting stronger. She also hoped that his gait seeming easier and surer was more but a fancy.

Willa fixed her eyes on the river. A clear goal in sight, she emptied her mind of everything but reaching that goal.

And nearly stumbled when Tygra spoke.

“I think we left the Thundrainium behind us. I’m sure you had other things to do besides saving me. You can leave me here. It’ll be just a matter of time, till I’m recovered.”

His speech was still halting and strained but a far cry from when she had found him.

Her reply held the offense his words deserved.

“If it were me, would you leave me behind and be on your merry way?”

“I didn’t mean to offend you, Willa. But once we reach the forest we should rest and wait for the other Thundercats to get me. If we make it across the river, that is.”

They were standing side by side before the river. Tygra was casting a dubious look at the band of water.

“Contrary to what you believe, not all of Third Earth is out to get you.”

He grinned at the restrained laughter in her voice.

“Could have fooled me.”

He followed Willa into the water.

“You Thundercats have an uncanny knack of meeting Third Earth at it’s deadliest and that’s before Mumm-Ra taking an interest in you. What you got into since arriving here, neither me nor my Maidens have met in a lifetime.”

“We have gotten better at that since you told us about the dangers you already know.”

“I didn’t want it to be my fault when curiosity kills a cat.”

Their back and forth was cut short when they reached the middle part of the river. The river’s sides where shallow enough to walk, but the middle was too deep to stand.

Tygra managed the few necessary strokes on his own. Only when it was time to leave the river did he need her help. The bank was rather steep and his arms shook.

And then they were among the trees. A little further down from where Willa had come. Here many thin young trees stood with almost now underbrush to hide in. 

There was a familiar sound and when Tygra snapped up to look down the river, she was sure. The mutants were coming back. 

“How are you, Tygra. If the mutants come back, we’d better be in the forest or invisible.”

The noise was louder now.

“My whip is still where they caught me. My clothing is too visible between the trees, if we move, they’ll see us. There’s only one thing we can do. My ancient forefathers lived in the forests. The rest of my body is patterned like my hair. If I strip down, I’ll be invisible among the trees.”

Before she could even try to imagine what Tygra without clothes looked like, the mutant’s flyer passed them. Willa didn’t see who it was, but it didn’t matter as the mutant only seemed to have eyes for the spot Tygra had fallen. It circled there a few times and then turned back. Tygra hunkered down, Willa half over him. 

The flying machine thundered past and on, after a few moments only the sound of the land prevailed. They both looked after it. When it didn’t return after a few moments, they relaxed.

“Looks like it was our lucky day. To get off so easy, though I would have liked to see you become invisible without your whip.”

She felt his eyes on her. He had offered, if he questioned her motive, she’d argue it was only the professional interest of a forest dweller. If he could hide like that, other creatures might as well, and who know when one passed through her forest.

“The mutant is gone, I can show you.”

At the sultry tone in his voice, she turned and dragged a long look along his body. He would benefit from getting out his clothes. At the moment he resembled nothing so much as a half-drowned cat, and she probably looked the same.

“You Thundercats recover fast, but I don’t think you are quite up to the game you are talking. Besides, new frontiers are best explored when the day is new and neither of us in our current sorry state.” 

With that she pushed herself up and started to walk. After a few moments Tygra fell in with her step. His words held mischief.

“So lets meet when the morning sun is shining bright between the trees – the effect is more striking then, and I’ll show you how fast a Thundercat recovers.”


End file.
